Have you ever drawn your characters with mainstream characters to gain traction on social media?

[moorevision98]

By characters, I mean completely original characters from your original comic, not fan works.

I was just curious since I personally have never seen artists do crossover drawings of their own characters and popular ones. It would be a decent way to introduce viewers to your character(s) through a character they're already familiar with, right?

[Kiweevil]

I have drawn it but they're not safe for posting lol. And by that, I mean there's blood involved, like fight scenes. And I wouldn't want to show a character someone loves getting mauled by one of my own. It might upset some

[gh0stcr33p]

yeah I have on instagram fairly recently, even if the "mainstream characters" weren't all that popular because the franchise is new. in the end it got about as much traffic as my usual posts do, but did get more attention than my usual posts on deviantart.
(namely, this one)
https://www.deviantart.com/ghostieblu/art/Mirror-Monster-The-Owl-House-830499276

[Cavechan]

I made one before of Sakura and my character Shion but it was just for funsies. ^^

[Kelheor]

I haven't, but I don't really believe it can help you with traffic until the popular character is really hyping right now or until you are already popular lol. I don't say it's something bad (because... no idea, honestly, just reflecting here), but I personally would refrain of introducing the characters like this because of possible future comparisons of your character and the popular one

[magnavarra]

I have seen it as well as some people drawing their characters that cosplay popular characters. Or you can draw your character in someone's style. though I guess no one cares about your OC until they actually read you comic. So I'd suggest you just go for a fanart to draw attention and kindky ask to check out your own work.
Also if you are aiming for some financial revenue from your comic, using popular characters might be illegal...

[martinadenatale]

I think this is actually a really good idea and I know for sure that sometimes it works. For example there is an artist on instagram, her name is @rorokona who creates her own personal characters and inserts them in an imaginary world, Marvel like. One of her main characters often interacts with Spiderman, because she is supposed to be one of his most bitter enemies.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Crossovers are a good way to get out of "canon" headspace and maybe try and get people's attention! I don't recommend overdoing it though, as people might start coming in thinking they're fan characters and dislike the real work. It's best for days like your favorite franchise's anniversary, halloween, that kind of thing.

Here's mine from last Halloween! I'm not shy about what characters inspired my own, and this year I'll probably do something similar too.

[moorevision98]

I didn't have violent crossovers in mind lol. Worst scenario in my case may be the characters being confused by one another or possibly gesturing to fight (depending on their personalities).

[moorevision98]

Nice work!
By the way, you have the same dilemma I do lol. I have a character I created back in 2016, and then Pixar's Onward comes along, and introduces Barley. There are so many physical similarities between them it's not even funny. XD
I was thinking about drawing them together just to compare, and that's why I asked the initial question.

[moorevision98]

My comic is still in heavy construction right now, so I'm posting art of some of my characters just to have some content out there. The popular characters won't appear in the comic, though. I'm referring to small crossover illustrations.

[ninjashira]

I did one cute crossover image, but it was mostly for my own entertainment, not for any kind of social media promotion. I have a character who is really into ugly sweaters, so I drew him chatting with Mabel from Gravity Falls, connecting over their love of sweaters.

I actually don't do a ton of social media promotional art for my comic, though maybe I should. I tend to focus more on getting the actual comic drawn than doing a bunch of extra stuff. I just have all this story in my head that needs to get out!

[moorevision98]

I totally understand! I like to do crossover art for fun as well, just never did it with my fully original characters, yet. I just wanted to see if my idea to do it is generally okay at all, since I haven't seen other original artists do the same (which has been answered obviously! ^^) .